there's procrastination and PROCRASTINATION
I'm a big David Allen fan. I have his "Getting Things Done" book in both print and audio form, plus I bought the "adapting Outlook" booklet on his Web site and found that very useful. I tried the GTD plug-in that the other guy sells (forget his name) but didn't like it - overcomplicated. I wrote my own Outlook plug-in to add project management to the Outlook Tasks module (I'm a programmer) and used that for a while, but for my particular situation, there are better tools. I found an outline utility (with an Outlook integration option) to supplement the Tasks component and I use that instead - works better for me. All of which is to say...
Following David Allen's suggestions was very useful in improving how I organize my life, but it did nothing to help my chronic procrastination problem.
There are procrastinators and then there are
PROCRASTINATORS. I'm a
PROCRASTINATOR, and I'm not alone. For some people, procrastination is due to a practical problem relating to temporary situations or skill deficits. But for others, it's a very serious addictive disorder with no rational basis. No amount of "figuring out why" can get an alcoholic to stop drinking. Similarly, no amount of "figuring out why" can get a chronic procrastinator of the serious type to stop procrastinating.
Some people occasionally drink too much when something crappy happens in their lives, and when they solve the problem they stop. Some people drink too much because they are alcoholics - they have addictive personalities, and alcohol is their drug of choice. It's the same with procrastination. Some people procrastinate now and then because they need to clarify their tasks better or whatever. And some people procrastinate because they have an addictive personality and compulsive task avoidance is their "drug of choice" - that's what they do to escape unpleasant reality.
It sounds like you are not a chronic compulsive procrastinator - you are fortunate. I am, and I'm not the only one. Lawyers have been disbarred due to procrastination. Small business owners have gone bankrupt because they procrastinated on sending out invoices. This is not a "task clarification" problem. For some people, something much more serious is going on.
I'm an extremely well-organized person. I'm a programmer, my thinking is orderly, and everything in my life is orderly. My home is neat and orderly, my files are orderly, my time management systems are efficient and orderly. And yet I still struggle to get myself to do what I need to do because I have an extremely addictive personality, and compulsive task avoidance is my (current) "drug of choice".
For people like you, time management tips and tricks will be enough to cure passing procrastination. But for people like me, they are not. I posted my message for others like me who are desperately seeking answers, and keep getting told it's a time management problem. For chronic procrastinators, this is not a time management problem, it's a compulsive task avoidance problem - an addictive disorder.
This is not a "one size fits all" world. The information on
procrastinators-anonymous.org will be uniquely helpful to people who struggle with chronic compulsive procrastination. That isn't you, but I'm sure this describes many people visiting this forum. We're out there and
desperate, let me tell you. Until now, no one has had good answers for this problem, and it's an extremely serious, life-destroying problem. What I learned, I learned the hard way. The insights and solutions I posted on
procrastinators-anonymous.org are original - you will not find this viewpoint or these recommendations anywhere else.
Note that I'm not selling anything - the model for recovery is based on the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, which has no dues or fees.